It was an abandoned waystation, had been out of use for at least a couple centuries now. There isn’t that much Imperial action this side of the Rift.. According to scanners, I don’t know, maybe three dozen souls? So we approached with care, and..Yes! That was weird, but I wouldn’t call it lucky! Our access codes worked perfectly.

[…]Am I allowed to talk about him?

[…]So yeah, it was me, Krohn and Ontrei from the Veletaris detachment, our acrobat agent Taomun-11, and one Deathwatch Battle-Brother. Not taking Astartes presence into account, I’d call it a very ordinary approach. Reconnaissance..

[…]The halls were dark.. You see, the station had been powered down to preserve the cores. Lot’s of forgotten machinery about..And uh.. The first sign I guess was the servohauler puffing to life. The whole place was suddenly full of smoke. Shortly after that we heard the first shot.

[…]Next thing I see, our Acrobat is dead. Now at this point the smoke had cleared a bit and there was movement behind the hauler.[…]We were exchanging a lot of shots! If only either side had known what was ahead..[…] Krohn dropped to the ground beside, and I didn’t see him get back up again..Have you any news? Has he recovered?

[…]Our opponents were definitely of Imperial origin, and were equipped with recent pattern lasguns.[…]Ontrei was in first, I followed. We had found a trace on one of the lower floors..I can only assume our adversaries were following, but it was just the two of us now so we were quick in the tunnels.

[…]Biological constructs of bark and thorne. They were animated by some dark energy..
We had no choice but to cease fire on each other and team up on this new threat.

[…]They were brittle and thin, but possessed massive strength! One of the other warriors had a massive axe, two handed, and even he couldn’t chop them down!And the rustling sounds from all over..It seemed like they could just emerge from the cracks on the floor.We signaled help immediately.

[…]No, they were Xenos, or unnatural in origin. I’ve never seen anything like it.

[…]The big one seemed like their leader, so we kept well clear of it. One of the other warriors did quite a good job of keeping it busy with lasgun shots..

[…]It was truly an honor to see two Battle-Brothers defeat the beast. A servant of the Emperor can ask for no more.[…]Yes, he had a slightly bulkier armor than our operative. Huge fists and a flamer. Grimy beige armour.[…]I didn’t recognise the mark. But I’m no expert in Astartes armour patterns.
[…]Forgive me Lord, we were attending to the dead beast while the other warriors disappeared.

+ + +

There you have it.. A very moody encounter was played at the Blanche stronghold last weekend, featuring the warbands of John, myself, and the Thorne Guards of FPOA. It was remarkable how well my forest stalker fits in with them! But I think you’ll agree that the true star of the encounter was the Blanchitsu terrain! The right kind of grimy and industrial, it was more than fitting for an abandoned imperial waystation on the far side of the Crataegus Rift.

Pictures of warbands coming at a later date.. Mine was finished the night before the match, so there hasn’t really been time to document them yet. Good time to reflect their fates in the paintwork now!

Lovely account of an awesome looking game! The spoken word aspect of the narrative really adds to the mystery. All the models look fantastic, and I agree your beast fits right alongside FPOA’s throne guard. Everything really blends into the dark magistracy of the terrain too. Quite a remarkable feat. I cannot wait to see more pictures of the warbands!

Not a huge fan of the terrain painting. The weathering is well executed but the colour choices are samey enough so there’s very little contrast between the floor, walls objects.
Could just be the photos though.

The terrain is perfect in my opinion. So dirty and dark like Neil’s Arke board. As you said a great backdrop for the miniatures. I try to keep my pallette very limited for terrain, but this makes me want to add more black, not just greys and browns.

Great to hear about what looks to have been an awesome game! The love how the narrative elements are presented from the point of view of one of the individuals involved. It along with the moody pictures helps create a vivid tale!

I look forward to hearing more, and seeing pictures of the warbands involved in the conflict. Hopefully there will be more pictures of the terrain too, it looks particularly lovely (in a grimy and secluded way).

Thank you for sharing your endeavours with the community. This is so inspiring, really, I absolutely love the terrain, I love that blended together, oily, filthy look, it’s what got me following this whole movement in the first place.

You guys were doing amazing stuff even before GW’s ‘re-awakening’ of the last couple of years – and now, we have so much fantastic material to work with!

I travelled to Nottingham specifically to see the Pilgrym display at W.World in December, I was blown away by everything I saw. The whole experience has been a revelation. Enjoy your hobby and keep it coming!

Theres always been a GW contingent within this group and always doing amazing stuff – its how we utilise available material but agreed theres been many epic releases and the more that gets released the more potential there is …..

That looks like it was a great game. The terrain provide a great back drop for the models. I think that the new shadows of Armageddon terrain would look really good as the internal structure for an overgrown greenhouse. All broken glass and exploding foliage. You guys are always an inspiration.